How to brew a good cup of tea?

Brewing a good cup of loose leaf tea is not a rocket science! If the quality of the tea is good, you should be able to get a tasteful result by any brewing methods.
Generally speaking, we use a 1:50 leaf-to-water ratio (i.e. 1 gram of tea leaf per 50 ml of boiling water) for around 5 minutes in any containers. (You can also adjust the leaf-to-water ratio and brew for different lengths of time. It all depending on your personal preference.)

Please feel free to click the following to see different brewing methods for our teas.

There are many types of tea in the world and the quality varies greatly with the cultivation, local terroir and tea-making techniques. This brewing method is based on the international standard ISO 3103-1980 and is widely used in international trade and professional evaluation to compare the quality of different teas at the same brewing conditions.

1. You will need to own a set of 150 ml professional tea cupping set for this method.

2. Use an electronic scale to take 3 grams of tea leave and place it into the cup. Ideally, we use a 1:50 leaf-to-water ratio (i.e. 1g leaf for 50 ml water). (You may come across with cupping set of 135 or 200 ml, you will need to adjust the amount of leaf accordingly.)

3. Pour boiling water into the cup until it is full, cover the lid.

4. Set the timer for 5-6 minutes (we usually use 5 minutes for black tea, 5.5 minutes for Oriental Beauty Oolong, and 6 minutes for ball-shaped oolong).

5. Pour the tea into the bowl and enjoy the aroma from the cup and the taste the tea soup from the bowl.

We recommend using Clay Teapot for brewing our AliShan and LiShan oolong. Here is the general guideline for brewing with clay teapot.

Depending on the size of the teapot, the amount of tea used should be about 8 grams (ideally, the amount of dried leave should be a little bit more than just covering the bottom of the pot). When the tea is fully brewed, the wet leave should loosely fill the entire pot, but it shouldn’t push the lid open.

Remember to use boiling water when brewing, the balled-shape leaves will not open if the temperature is too low.

The time for the first four infusions should between 50-60 seconds. After the 4th infusion, add another 5-10 seconds in the subsequent infusion. The taste will reach the peak at the fourth or fifth infusion before gradually fading away. The tea should last about 7-8 infusions.

Please remember, this is just a guideline for brewing with clay teapot. Feel free to adjust the amount of tea leaf and the infusion time to your personal preference.

We recommend using glass or porcelain teapot or gaiwan for brewing Oriental Beauty. (preferable with glass, so you can actually see the leave expanding in during the infusion).

Use the leaf-to-water ratio of 1:50, with the water temperature at around 85℃.

The time for the first infusion should be around 50-60 seconds and add 20-30 seconds in each of the subsequent infusions. The tea should last about 6-7 infusions and the taste will reach the peak at the third or fourth infusion before gradually fading away.

Please remember, this is just a general guideline. Feel free to adjust the amount of tea leaf used and the infusion time to your personal preference.

We recommend using glass teaware for brewing our Ruby black tea.

Use leaf-to-water ratio 1:100, with boiled water.

The time for the first infusion should be around 50-60 seconds and add 20-30 seconds in each of the subsequent infusions. The tea should last about at least 2-3 infusions.

Please remember, this is just a general guideline. Feel free to adjust the amount of tea leaf used and the infusion time to your personal preference.